• Author Dean Wesley Smith talks about making a living on your short fiction. (DeanWesleySmith.com)
• My buddy Alfred dissects the solo work of Paul McCartney in honor of the Fab’s 70th. I think his conclusion is accurate — that every Macca album holds one or two gems and he never made a true, Beatles-level masterpiece. I still enjoy Ram, Band on the Run, Venus & Mars and a few others a lot, and I think he gets a bad rap mainly because he produced so much more than the other three. I mean, Lord knows George and Ringo have made some bad albums. I do think that if there is a McCartney album you can point to as his strongest solo effort, it’s Ram, “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey” notwithstanding. As for personal gems, I have a soft spot for Band‘s “Let Me Roll It.” A spot-on Lennon spoof that’s more loving than scathing. (Humanizing the Vacuum)
• Arsenio Hall returning to late night? (NYT’s Media Decoder)
• Daredevil artist Paolo Rivera on why he’s focusing on creator-owned work. (The Self-Absorbing Man)